Man cannot communicate or walk since 2005 incident
By Lisa J. Huriash
Sun-Sentinel
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A federal trial that targeted how the Broward Sheriff’s Office runs its jails ended abruptly Monday with a $1.8 million settlement for a former inmate who cannot walk or communicate since a beating three years ago.
Announcement of the deal in the trial’s second week means Ken Jenne, who was sheriff at the time, will not take the stand in a Miami federal courtroom. Jenne and the jail’s health-care provider, Armor Correctional Health Services, were defendants in the suit.
The Sheriff’s Office denied any wrongdoing in a release announcing the settlement benefiting Dana Jones, 46, who lives in a Pompano Beach nursing home.
The statement said, “the Broward Sheriff’s Office was confident the claims that remained against the BSO . . . would not be sufficient to ever be submitted to a jury, or if they were, that the jury would find in their favor.”
The jail met “all national standards” when Jones was held there in 2005, according to the statement.
But the Sheriff’s Office, now headed by Al Lamberti, was not willing to risk going before a jury that might be sympathetic to Jones, who was beaten into a coma at Broward County’s main jail.
“However, in considering Mr. Jones’ serious injuries which resulted in his not being capable of taking care of himself, and that a future life care plan for him had an estimated cost in excess of $10 million, for his remaining life expectancy, a decision was made to eliminate that risk,” the statement said.
Jones claimed in his lawsuit that jailers ignored his mental condition, failed to protect him from other inmates, and bungled an investigation into whether deputies may have incited the beating.
On Dec. 16, 2005, Jones was left on a blue, plastic temporary bed in the hallway that inmates called “sleeping on I-95" because it was a high-traffic area, his lawyer, Barbara Heyer, told jurors in opening statements last week. Jones was described as bedridden and, because of his brain injuries, unable to communicate well.
Heyer declined to comment Monday, as did Sheriff’s Office attorney Rick Woulfe.
Attorneys for Armor, the jail medical provider, also denied wrongdoing in opening statements.
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